So forgive me for not taking a picture of this tasty treat. It gets consumed way too fast. Instead here is a lovely shot of cauliflower.

Yup- that’s the secret healthy ingredient in this smoothie. You’d never know it though.

Caulflower has never been my favorite. It just doesn’t get me that excited. I know people like to have mashed cauliflower or roasted cauliflower, and cauliflower is frequently the vegan option at many non-vegan restaurants- bleh.

I have to sneak mine in so that I don’t get any of that yucky cauli-taste, but still can reap the benefits of eating this veg super rich in vitamins.

So behold-

The Cruciferous Chocolate Brownie Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 cup non sweetened almond milk

1 frozen banana

1 cup frozen cauliflower

1/2 cup black beans

2 dates (remember to take the pits out)

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 tablespoon cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

optional- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

optional- 1 tablespoon nut butter

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and blend it up. Sip and enjoy.

Is your root chakra spinning to slow? Too fast? Are you hips feeling a little bit tight? Or are you experiencing a little bit of increased self doubt? Time to do some grounding activities and maybe try this bright red smoothie! Beets from the earth give it a nice base. Berries make it sweet and brighten the flavor. Some greens thrown in for some nourishing nutrition and seeds to help you feel satisfied. So go get your Muladhara on…

Every summer we make a trip to Rehoboth Beach for a Board meeting that Aaron is required to attend. On the “way” there and back, we stop at his parents’ house on the New Jersey Shore where the dogs take there own little vacation. This year is no exception. We packed up the Tiguan and headed east. I always have to get a bit creative with vegan eats while we visit these beach towns. They aren’t known for being particularly vegan friendly. I think I do a pretty good job of keeping everyone fed and happy.

As soon as arriving, I always check Happy Cow just to see what’s around. A restaurant that has never popped up made a surprise appearance. I never know if they added a few vegan options or if they were an undiscovered vegan gem. We headed over to “The Cultured Pearl” and enjoyed some vegan teriyaki bowls with edamame, and ginger salad.

‘The next day we ran into a minor challenge. None of the breakfast restaurants open until 8:00 or 8:30 and Freddie wakes up around 6:00. What do you do with a hungry toddler for two hours? We occupied him the best that we could. And showed up for breakfast with a very cranky Little Man at 8:00.

We have been going to a breakfast/lunch place and juice bar for several years. They always have something that the whole family can enjoy. This place is called “Green Man”.

We order two smoothies and “The Curious George” for Freddie. It is a peanut butter and banana sandwich (we asked them to hold the honey). It comes with more bananas and yellow raisins. I had the Peachy Green Smoothie and he had the Vegan Beast. In the past I have gotten the tofu scramble. It’s good, but I wasn’t feeling a heavy breakfast today.

Around 11:00, my tummy was starting to talk to me. We stopped at a health food store that also appeared on the Happy Cow Ap called “Good News Natural”. We got supplies for snacks and Freddie breakfast foods. We also got some veggie milk for coffee. I had some chickpea salad and plantain chips as a snack to tide me over until lunch. Freddie ate one of his favorite Lemon Poppyseed cookies from The Alternative Baking Co.

We tend to eat lunch on the later side, so at around 1:30, we started to make our way over to “Arena’s Deli”. It’s mostly a sandwich shop with a few salads and of course a beachy drink or six. I got a salad wrap with hummus (making sure to have them leave the cheese off). Freddie just had a few tater tots. I think he was still full from the cookie.

Dinner was a work affair. The hotel puts together a backyard picnic and has the usual grilled meats and mayo salads. We just had a veggie burger and some watermelon. It was a decent dinner.

The next morning I found this stand right off of the boardwalk that makes green smoothies, oatmeal and açaí bowls. Jackpot! It was pretty awesome.

Of course we have been occupying ourselves with plenty of beach time. We’ve also been visiting a lot of the local shops along the main drag. Our favorite so far has been “Browseabout Books”. We grabbed a few items for beach reading and played with every toy that they had.

I would be remiss to not mention “Dogfish Head Brewery and/or Restaurant” when talking about Rehoboth. The last time we were here, the vegan eats there were a bit limited, but now….They have the Beyond Burger! What a delightful surprise! I ordered mine Cali Style (hold the cheese obvi). I also had a beer called Dragon YumYums which was designed in part by The Flaming Lips.

Aaron suggested a place for dinner called “Stingray”. It was super close to “The Cultured Pearl” and boy was it tasty. It’s Asian inspired and the food was surprisingly tasty. I think the waiter didn’t know how to handle Freddie and seemed to be terrified of small children, but he kept trying to give us free stuff. No complaints here Mister. We had some miso soup, salad, dumplings, edamame hummus, crispy wonton chips, and General Tso’s Cauliflower. All of this was accompanied by a tall glass of wine.

I can’t leave out the amazing hotel where we stayed. Thanks Boardwalk Plaza! They hosted Aaron’s board meeting and kept us organized the whole time. Emro and Peanut (the two tropical birds that live in the lobby fascinated Freddie and kept us entertained constantly.

Sometimes you just want a hot, filling breakfast. Something that really fills you up and keeps you happy until lunchtime. Beans on toast is a classic combo especially in UK and it is definitely one of my favorite breakfasts. This version with chickpeas is not traditional at all, but is Oh-So-Good.

It slightly reminds me of scrambled eggs on toast, but so much better and healthier. Make the whole recipe on the weekend and add to toast throughout the week to save time in the morning.

Sauté the red onion in 1 Tbsp of olive oil until translucent. Add the chickpeas, salt, pepper, and turmeric and heat through. Use a sturdy fork or potato masher to smash the chickpeas until no whole chickpeas remain.

Push the chickpeas off to the side of the skillet and add the other tablespoon of oil to the empty space. Sauté the garlic in the oil for about 30 seconds. Add the handful of spinach and cook until wilted. Turn off heat and squeeze the lemon juice into the skillet. Stir everything up. Serve spread on toast, over home fries, or maybe even in a tortilla. Use your imagination.

I like it on toast with a drizzle of tahini and tomato slices as you can see pictured above.

Freddie’s second birthday is coming up and I’m starting to reminisce about what I was doing during the month of June these past two years. Since I’m so food-centric, I always remember what I was eating or making in the kitchen. At this time of year, I get a sudden mood bump when the weather starts to get warm and Farmers’ Markets start to open. More fresh produce available everywhere.

I remember when I was pregnant and Aaron would go to the Farmers’ Market in front of his office and bring me home pints of berries. The raspberry bushes in our yard start to produce the first fruits of year. I would stuff my face with berries and not even attempt to save room for non-berry food.

Last year, Freddie was just starting to eat larger varieties of food and I remember giving him his first blueberries. Of course, he took after me and began to consume every blueberry in sight. We started referring to them as “bluebs”. Scenes of the girl in Willie Wonka swelling up into a giant blueberry and being rolled away by Oompah Lumpahs would flash through my mind.

This year, since we have had so much luck with smoothies, I have begun blending our favorite berry into our morning smoothie. I must say that this tasty concoction hits the spot and keeps me full well into the morning.

I hope that this June Baby Smoothie makes it into your repertoire and has you waxing romantic about June’s past during breakfast.

June Baby Smoothie

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of water

1/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 frozen banana

1 tablespoon chia seeds

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon almond butter

one large handful of spinach

1 cup ice (optional)

Place everything in the blender. I prefer to add them to blender in the order that I have listed the ingredients. Ice is optional. Use if you like a super cold smoothie. I only add it when it is super hot outside.

I love the pugs. They are rescued and they have a great home. They aren’t going anywhere and I don’t regret bringing them into our lives at all, but sometimes I wonder if Aaron and I should have adopted a different breed of dog. More specifically, should we have adopted a “less desirable” dog breed?

The girls, most likely, would have been fine if we never came along. They are cute and snuggly, and some nice people would have taken them home and given them a great life. In the shelters we see row after row of pittbull mixes and mutts that get looked over constantly in search of dogs that are closer to some “pure breed”. You know they end up being euthanized eventually. I wonder if I missed an opportunity to save another dog,or dogs, that never made it into a forever home.

‘Of course I am just wondering “what if?” Or “should I have…?” As someone who studied Economics, I am always wondering about opportunity cost. Around nine years ago, while we were adopting the girls, these thoughts didn’t enter my mind. We were younger and more impulsive and animal rights strategies hadn’t really had enough time to marinate around in my brain.

The happy pugs

Throughout the years, we have had the girls treated for health problem after health problem. From puppy mange to ACL repairs to eye injuries and disc issues (see To Pug Chiropractor or Not To Pug Chiropractor?) I know we have given the girls the best lives that we could have, taking special care to treat all of their expensive maladies. I don’t have regrets in respect to how well we have taken care of our pugs, but I just worry in the grand scheme of things, could we have saved more dogs?

Something that I do like to do in order to give back to the breeds that have a harder time at life is order some Rescue Chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate? Well the people who have had that stomach band surgery can’t have it because it’s too acidic or something. To those people, I feel sorry for you. Everyone else should give some money to the Rescue Animal cause and order themselves a bar of Peanut Butter Pittbull. Yum! And it’s vegan.

Now I love a good smoothie, but it’s the middle of March and the thought of blending up an icy concoction gives me the literal shivers. It better be a really damn good smoothie for the chill to be worth it.

Enter the child approved Sweet Potato Pie Smoothie. Freddie drinks these down like water. We usually split one, but sometimes I have to blend up two. It has warming spices and it helps to increase your daily antioxidant intake. It also brings back cozy memories of the holidays.